So, remember a month or two back when everybody was whining about how Michigan got screwed out of a shot at the Mythical National Championship? They lost to USC last night.
USC, you’ll recall, demonstrated their inferiority to Michigan by losing to UCLA, which is how they ended up in the Rose Bowl, rather than playing Ohio State for the MNC.
How about the undefeated Boise State? The knock on them has always been that they play in a weak conference, and couldn’t really hang with big conference teams. They beat Oklahoma last night, in a wild game, and end the season undefeated.
What can we learn from this? Basically nothing, because single-game results don’t mean much, and college football doesn’t have a playoff. Does USC’s win over Michigan mean that they could give Ohio State a run? Does Boise State’s victory demonstrate the quality of their team, or is it just a fluke? We’ll never know, because these teams won’t play another game.
In NFL news:
My Giants actually looked like a decent team on Saturday, beating the Redskins fairly convincingly behind 235 yards and three touchdowns from Tiki Barber. If he really is retiring (and I still hope he’ll reconsider), he went out with a good final game.
Beating the Redskins gave the Giants a chance to make the playoffs, which could be secured with a win by the hated Cowboys. Who promptly honked a game to the woeful Detroit Lions– a major catch-22 situation for a Giants fan. On the one hand, the Cowboys losing is always good, but their loss might’ve kept the Giants out of the playoffs… Happily, the Rams won, which gets the Giants in even with the Cowboy loss, so it’s all schadenfreude, baby. Tony Romo getting roughed up! Terrell Owens yapping! Bill Parcells looking dyspeptic! Whee!
As for the upcoming playoff game, I don’t hold out a great deal of hope that the Giants will beat the Eagles (who, you recall, they just lost to a couple of weeks ago), but you never know. Frankly, nobody in the NFC has looked all that impressive, so they might have a chance. I don’t really see them winning three road games to get to the Super Bowl, though, and fully expect them to get pounded this weekend. But hey, at least they’re still playing.
The Patriots won, too, which is good because it makes Kate happy. Vinne Testaverde threw a touchdown pass, giving him the NFL record for most consecutive seasons with a TD pass, and solidifying the Patriots’ status as the team for really old guys looking to set records that nobody cares about before retiring to become studio analysts. Brett Favre, Tiki Barber, don’t lose Bill Belichick’s number…
And that’s the state of football today, as I see it.